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For the last couple years I've had a project on the back burner: to make an online implementation of the board game Knockabout. It's a two-player abstract game where your pieces are dice on a hexagonal board and you're trying to push your opponent's dice off the board. When a die is "knocked", it is re-rolled, but this luck element is actually pretty minor and it's mostly a serious, thoughtful strategy game. At least that's the opinion of its fans, like me and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aarondf and Matthew Gray (and its designer Greg Lam), but some prominent game reviewers, shannon_a and Tom Vasel, wrote it off as too luck-dominated. So I wanted there to be an online implementation so that more people could get a chance to try it out and see, plus a ranking system would show whether skilled players could have a higher winning percentage than you would expect in a luck-dominated game.
Well, Dave Dyer at BoardSpace finally beat me to it and made a pretty nice Java applet implementation. There's even a robot player that, despite being called "dumbot", is surprisingly good. Initial results seem to back up my claim: while dumbot has the second highest rating, and has a 80+% winning percentage against several opponents, I can usually beat it (my current record against it is 5-2), which suggests there are at least three levels of skill in the game.
Anyway, come and play Knockabout. It's fun! Feel free to challenge me to a game if you see me online (at BoardSpace or on IM), or suggest a time and we can schedule a game. (I heard a rumor that there was a website where you could easily schedule online games, but I don't think it's up yet...)
Edit: Once you've learned the game, take a look at Dave Dyer's challenge to win some GeekGold: Can you come up with a situation where knocking one of your own dice into the gutter is a winning move?
aarondf and Matthew Gray (and its designer Greg Lam), but some prominent game reviewers, shannon_a and Tom Vasel, wrote it off as too luck-dominated. So I wanted there to be an online implementation so that more people could get a chance to try it out and see, plus a ranking system would show whether skilled players could have a higher winning percentage than you would expect in a luck-dominated game.Well, Dave Dyer at BoardSpace finally beat me to it and made a pretty nice Java applet implementation. There's even a robot player that, despite being called "dumbot", is surprisingly good. Initial results seem to back up my claim: while dumbot has the second highest rating, and has a 80+% winning percentage against several opponents, I can usually beat it (my current record against it is 5-2), which suggests there are at least three levels of skill in the game.
Anyway, come and play Knockabout. It's fun! Feel free to challenge me to a game if you see me online (at BoardSpace or on IM), or suggest a time and we can schedule a game. (I heard a rumor that there was a website where you could easily schedule online games, but I don't think it's up yet...)
Edit: Once you've learned the game, take a look at Dave Dyer's challenge to win some GeekGold: Can you come up with a situation where knocking one of your own dice into the gutter is a winning move?
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